The series was adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories by scriptwriter Edith Meiser.
Edith Meiser first pitched the idea of a radio series based on Conan Doyle's detective.
[3] Edith Meiser dramatised fifty-nine of the sixty Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, with the same actors, Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, playing Holmes and Watson respectively in the adaptations, including a remake of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".
The 59th Sherlock Holmes story adapted by Meiser was "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", which aired in late 1932.
[6] An adaptation of The Valley of Fear was not produced because the story concerns labour relations in the Pennsylvania coalfields and was therefore thought to be potentially too political.
[7] For the series, Meiser also wrote episodes inspired by cases alluded to in the Sherlock Holmes canon, namely "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" (June 1932 and July 1936), "The Case of Vamberry, the Wine Merchant" (December 1934), and "The Singular Affair of the Aluminium Crutch" (January 1935).
Meiser also adapted two of Arthur Conan Doyle's non-Holmes stories, "The Jewish Breastplate" and "The Lost Special".
[15] According to a contemporary review, Lucille Wall played "the star feminine part" in the first episode.
The season included a four-episode adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, and a six-episode dramatization of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
[22] All the scripts for the fifth-season episodes were ones that had been used previously on the show, partly because Edith Meiser was busy after signing a movie contract with RKO in May 1936.
[24] The season featured 48 episodes, starting with "The Speckled Band" and ending with the six-part serial The Hound of the Baskervilles.